Navy Seal and sniper Chris Kyle’s alleged murderer, Eddie Ray Routh, will use the insanity defense to combat his murder charge in the trail that started Feb. 11, 2015 in Erath County, Texas, said AP. Routh, a former Marine, allegedly murdered Kyle and his friend, Chad Littlefield, Feb. 2, 2013 at a shooting range in Glen Rose, Texas. The trial comes just a week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott named Feb. 2 “Chris Kyle Day” in honor of the late U.S. serviceman. “It was super sad learning of his death,” said Nate Rhoades, sophomore business major from Modesto, Calif. “He lived an incredible life and it’s just sad how it ended.”Kyle and Littlefield took Routh to a shooting range at Rough Creek Lodge as part of the FITCO Cares Heroes Project. Kyle frequently took veterans struggling to reacclimate to citizen life to shooting ranges as a mode of psychological therapy. While there, Routh allegedly shot and killed both Kyle and Littlefield before stealing Kyle’s truck and fleeing the scene.Kyle and Littlefield’s bodies were found later by Justin Nabours, who arrived to introduce a client’s son to Kyle. Routh had returned home and planned to flee to Oklahoma but was arrested and brought into custody after leading police on a chase. The trial has received international and national attention due to the recent release of the movie “American Sniper.” The movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, is based on Kyle’s book, which describes his four tours of service in Iraq. In those four tours, Kyle became the most lethal sniper in American history, with 160 confirmed kills. The book was on The New York Times bestseller list for 37 weeks. The movie came out in January 2015 and has earned around $300 million in ticket sales. “He is an amazing symbol of American patriotism and he demonstrated the respect that all men and women of the military should be treated with,” said Leena Kilpelainen, a social studies education major from Nipomo, Calif.The trial began with opening statements from the defense and a testimony by Kyle’s wife, Taya. Taya reportedly fought through tears as she explained the events that transpired the morning of her husband’s murder, according to AP. “We just said we loved each other and gave each other a hug and kiss, like we always did,” said Taya in her testimony.Routh and the defense will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. As defense attorney Tim Moore put it, Routh was “in the grip of a psychosis.” Routh has had a history of psychiatric problems, including PTSD, and received psychiatric treatment twice before the shooting. Chris Kyle is survived by his widow, Taya, and two children: an 8-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.Uploaded Feb. 19, 2015.

Whether you’ve heard of it or not, the Museum of Natural History on the BYU-Hawaii campus is considered an “undiscovered jewel of BYUH,” according to Kerstin Orgill, sophomore biology major from Colorado.The museum is under the direction of Dr. Phillip L. Bruner, associate professor at BYUH, and is located right across from Hale 2 and next to the Security office by the biology classrooms. The museum was dedicated in 1978, and inside one can find the articulated and disarticulated skeletons of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, and liquid-preserved fish and invertebrates. The mission statement of the Museum of Natural History claims to support educational instruction at BYUH through interactive tours and lectures. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.“I really want the students here to know how cool the museum is and to come visit,” said Orgill, who works as the museum curator. In this position Orgill is responsible for museum tours and making sure everything is smooth sailing. The tours are for local schools and community members, but scientists also come to the museum as part of their research studies.Under the direction of Bruner, Orgill makes sure all goes according to plan. Part of the museum is a lab for biology students to do species preparation. This is part of skeletal research. In the back room of the museum, there is a collection of skin, bone, and shell identification and cataloging done by students who work for Dr. Roger Goodwill, a biology professor.Orgill said there is little advertisement for the Museum of Natural History even though she tries her best to encourage friends other people she meets to come visit. She said the main reason some come into the museum is for the cold air conditioning when it’s hot outside.Sara Lecheminant, a senior ICS major from Utah, said, ”I’ve never been to the museum. I didn’t even know about it until one of my roommates went there on a date.”The government and various hunters have donated the animal displays. Some of the displays include a gorilla head from Africa, a Chamois from Germany, a polar bear, a brown bear that stands over 8 feet tall, and a moose from Alaska. There are also several different birds for display, adding to the collection of unique animals not found in the Hawaiian Islands.Animals on display that are native to the islands include the Hawaiian Boar and Spanish Goat from the island of Molokai.Jessica Yuen, an accounting senior from Hong Kong who also works at the museum, said, “When the kids come from the elementary school, some of them have never seen a life-size moose. The kids get so excited that within the next few days they bring their families.” Yuen also said she enjoys working at the museum because there are animals, like the porcupine, she had never seen before.Uploaded Feb. 19, 2015.

BYU-Hawaii Student Activities, in collaboration with University Communications, celebrated the 60-year anniversary of David O. McKay’s historic campus groundbreaking with a Spirit Week focused on the future and potential of all students.“Spirit Week was something like our homecoming week. It celebrated the 60-year anniversary of the school’s opening,” said Robert Justin Evans, the BYUHSA Student Executive Secretary and senior from Arizona studying accounting.Spirit Week began on Jan. 31 at the Seasider basketball game against California Baptist University where students were given free black T-shirts. As the week progressed, events like the annual flag raising and the Skate Escape dance took place.“I felt proud and homesick while raising the flag,” said Le Sirena Rudolph, a senior from Guam studying psychology. “I hope to do my home and family proud while I am here attending school.” The flag raising ceremony is an annual ceremony, according to BYUHSA, to bring together the more than 70 countries represented here on campus.In addition to the flag raising, students were able to participate in the Skate Escape dance on Feb. 6. The Little Circle was transformed into a roller rink allowing students on boards, skates and blades to show off their talent and socialize. The idea was for students to come together and do something fun and easy at the center of the school’s campus, according to Evans. Finally, as the weekend made way for weekdays, Spirit Week resumed with students in specific types of attire like gold shirts and professional suits. The Spirit Week activities “Genuine Gold Day” and “Dress Red Day” were opportunities for students to express their school spirit. Students received candy and free food if they wore red or gold. “I was able to participate by wearing the appropriate color or outfit,” said Jeffery Whiting, a sophomore from Arizona studying exercise and sport science. “It was nice to actually get involved in school activities. It brings everyone together.”Closing out Spirit Week was the annual David O. McKay Lecture given by Dr. Roger Goodwill entitled “Just One.” The annual lecture, established in 1962, is part of an annual series designed to expand academic insight and teach moral values, according to the BYUH website.Uploaded Feb. 19, 2015.

BYU-Hawaii students are in agreement with President Barack Obama after he told the private sector it must do more to stop cyber attacks aimed at the United States.“Everybody is online, and everybody is vulnerable,” President Obama stated during a White House cyber security summit at Stanford University. “Cyberspace is the new ‘Wild West.’” The conference held in Palo Alto, Calif. was just miles away from the headquarters of big Internet corporations like Facebook, Google and Intel, where President Obama addressed concerns like privacy and child protection.“This is awesome. It’s exactly what we as students need to hear,” said Mariah Adair, a freshman from Utah studying international cultural studies.In attendance were more than 1,500 business leaders, students, professors and reporters. The president stated that information about threats must be shared and responded to quickly, according to AP. Additionally, he signed an executive order aimed at making it easier for private firms to have access to classified information about cyber attacks.“What Obama is doing about cyber security is great,” said Lauren Anderson, an undeclared sophomore from Arizona. “I feel better knowing that the government actually cares about our cyber safety.”Additionally, President Obama stressed there would be oversight to ensure protection for privacy and civil liberties. The administration is requesting Congress to replace existing state laws with a nation-wide standard that would give companies 30 days to notify consumers if their personal information has been at risk or even compromised.However, some companies are not on the same page as the Obama Administration. The director of security solutions at cyber security firm Radware stated other CEOs of companies already believe they were badly burned by the government when Edward Snowden leaked intel.White House officials and business leaders from sectors such as utilities, health care and finance, also believe the threat is getting worse and no single institution can take it on, AP also reported.“It really is going to take a group effort for us to prevent security attacks,” said Foster May, a sophomore from South Africa studying information technology.Cyber attacks have been the cause of security breaches on companies like the mass retailer Target to entertainment companies like Sony Pictures. These attacks have caused companies to suffer costly data and have left nearly 85 million records exposed last year, according to AP.Uploaded Feb. 19, 2015.

Famous spoken-word poet Sarah Kay visited ‘Iolani School in Honolulu as part of her tour for her book, “No Matter the Wreckage.” Some BYUH students made the journey to town to see the poet perform live and ask her to sign their books. Ryndan and Kayla Riley, sophomores from Nevada, have been fans of Kay’s “for a while.” Ryndan introduced Kayla to Kay’s work when they were dating. The Rileys agreed it was worth it to drive to Honolulu to see her perform.Ryndan said getting to experience her art in person was memorable. “She’s a very talented spoken word artist; unlike most spoken word artists, she focuses on positive things in her poems. That’s what separated her from other artists for me. She’s very talented; she can write about pretty much anything and still make it beautiful and poetic,” Ryndan said. Kayla said she also enjoyed Kay’s performance because Kay made it personal. “She has a great personality. When she was signing my notebook, she drew me as the sunset and she drew Ryndan as an elephant. I just thought that was hilarious. What an awesome person,” Kayla said, laughing. BYUH student Lana Harris-Pitts agreed with Kayla. “Sarah is great! It was just unreal that she was actually here in Hawaii and we met her. I’m used to watching her on YouTube so it was crazy seeing her in person.” The Ke Alaka’i was also fortunate enough to interview Kay over the phone the morning of her performance in Honolulu. Sarah Kay started performing poetry when she was 14, but her passion for it started way before then. Little Kay would run around the house yelling “poem!” at her mom before she knew how to write. Kay would dictate poems and have her mother write them down for her.Kay’s parents fueled her passion for poetry during early elementary school. Everyday, her parents would write a little poem and put them in her lunch. For Kay, it became something that she looked forward to every day, and got her excited about poetry. “It felt like a gift,” Kay said, “Those things carried on to how I feel about poetry now.”Kay said that she learned how to write poetry based on how her father taught her how to take pictures. “When my dad photographs he always says to look for where the light is, find the light and follow the light. He tries to capture specific moments that are full of color, shape and light.” Kay continued to relate those lessons to her poetry. “When I think about poetry I’m often trying to capture a specific moment or specific scenes much in the same way that he tries to capture when he’s photographing.” Kay’s brother has also been the inspiration of some her poems. “I adore my brother. He is my best friend and my hero,” Kay said smiling. “I’m always amazed by him, but he also is my grounding force; he is my anchor and he probably reflects my poetry much more than he would care to admit or know about.” Kay’s brilliance is inspirational and admirable to BYUH students. Her advice to fellow writers of any level was to not let the fear of writing a “bad” poem stop you. Kay said, “It’s going to happen. In varying degrees of badness. So worrying about it is a waste of your energy. It’s okay to write a bad poem, it’s okay to write a mediocre poem, you have to write through bad and mediocre poems to get any better.” Kay continued to give advice to writers when they get stuck. “With writing, it isn’t just some people are born with it and some people are not; I guess sometimes that happens, but more often its you want to get better so you work at it. You write something, you write drafts, you edit, you ask people to look at it. It’s a process. So don’t be scared of writing dead poems. Write them. Then write a little bit better and a little bit better.” When asked how Kay writes her poetry, she said that she keeps track of peculiar moments in a notebook to use when she sits down to work on a poem. “I keep track of moments that are important, titillating, exciting or weird. I keep them in a notebook, then, as I go, I have this collection of thoughts or words that have mattered to me in various degrees and I make time to actually sit down and try writing, and when I sit down to try to write, I have this series of notes that I’ve made for myself so that I’m not trying to fabricate inspiration in the moment. I can follow a Hansel and Gretel bread crumb trail back to moments when I was genuinely, authentically moved by something.” Along with keeping these moments in a notebook, Kay uses poetry as a way to figure things out that she doesn’t quite understand. “When I have something that puzzling over when I have something that I can’t quite wrap my head around I’m having trouble understanding, I use poetry as a way to help me navigate those questions.” An example of this process in Kay’s life goes back to her brother. Kay used her poem “Ghost Ship,” to try and figure out her brother. “Now a days I’ve been watching him trying to figure out what it means to become a young man and the demands and expectations that men and women hold for each other,” Kay continues, “Ghost Ship is my way of both trying to understand those demands that we make on both genders and also specifically my little brother and his maneuvering on how to become a man in this world.” Uploaded Feb. 18, 2015.

BYU-Hawaii’s men’s and women’s tennis teams began their 2015 campaign with a roaring start. The men started things off Feb. 3 against visiting Linfield College with a 9-0 sweep in straight sets. “It’s always nice to start the season out with a win,” said Head Coach David Porter in an interview with BYUH athletics. “This early in the season it’s nice to learn things and still get a win.” Since that opening win, the Seasiders traveled to the Big Island where they went 3-4. The Seasiders sweep both Sonoma State and UH-Hilo 9-0. Their only loss came against UC San Diego, 5-4. The men came into this year ranked 19 nationally. The men’s team features a number of valuable returners, including No. 6 nationally ranked partners seniors Yevhen Zakharav and Martin Chojnacki. The team also returns with an impressive sophomore class: Wei-Feng Lee, Peng Dai, Ibrahim Karmadzhe, Grant Zukeran, and Taylor De Hoyas. The men’s team came into this season with high expectations. “We want to win conference and go on to the national tournament this year,” said sophomore Jake Stevenson, a business major from Logan, Utah. The men will have their hands full as they face a difficult conference, including No. 2 Hawaii Pacific University and No. 12 Azusa Pacific. Regardless of this, the men show optimism in their chances. “We are expecting to continue working hard and focusing on our effort and how we carry ourselves on the court,” said Stevenson. The women’s team started off their season with a doubleheader sweep against Linfield College and conference and inter-state rival Chaminade University on Feb. 4. Since then, the Lady Seasiders have continued to dominate in all their matches going 5-0 on the Big Island, sweeping four other their opponents and only losing one set. In an interview with BYUH athletics, Coach Porter said, “We are a young team and both Linfield and Chaminade fought hard, but despite the wins we have a lot of work to do.”Uploaded Feb. 17, 2015The women came into the season ranked No. 4 in the national polls. The Lady Seasiders feature three players ranked in the ITA National Division II top ten singles rankings: Dallas Zhang at No. 2, Karen Liu at No. 6, and Marietta Tuionetoa at No. 10. Tuionetoa leads the teams as the only senior. However, the team features a number of experienced returners, including Kanela Adamson, Leah Han, Karen Liu, and Dallas Zhang. The women also welcomed two newcomers to the team: JoJo Wu from Taiwan and Hailey Daniels from Utah.The Lady Seasiders came into this year with some unfinished business, as they were upset in the first round of last year’s national tournament. “We are really hungry this year because last year we were not ready and got knocked out the first round,” said junior Kanela Adamson, an elementary education major from Kaysville, Utah. “We have not won the title in a long time and we really want to take it for the upper-classmen on the team.”

Uploaded Feb. 16

BYU-Hawaii student’s eyes are open to the power of social media in the wake of a massive fundraiser for New York schools by the creator of Humans of New York.Humans of New York photo-blogger Brandon Stanton raised over one million dollars in less than a week for underprivileged youth at Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a middle school in Brooklyn. Over 38,000 individuals helped to fund the project for youth in one of New York’s roughest neighborhoods, donating from $1 to $100, according to NBC News. Melinda Pike, a BYU-H alumnus, said, “With the click of a button, we can tell everyone we know about a friend who is in need of help. With the click of a button, they can donate or share their resources in order to help.”Stanton and Humans of New York broke the Indiegogo record for most funded project in the history of the site and they did it in record time. Yahoo News reports the money will be used to fund three different programs at the school for the next decade: a Harvard trip, a summer program, and an annual scholarship for one outstanding scholar.Yahoo News reported principal Nadia Lopez as saying, “This is a neighborhood that doesn’t necessarily expect much from our children, so at Mott Hall Bridges Academy we set our expectations very high. We don’t call the children ‘students,’ we call them ‘scholars.’”Stanton has been receiving a lot of publicity from supporters all around the nation; even President Obama has recognized the Humans of New York blog. He recognized the good the blog and its supporters has done for underprivileged New York Schools.Pres. Obama recently met with the Principal Lopez and Vidal Chastanet, a student from the school from whom the inspiration for the Indiegogo project came. According to Humans of New York, Pres. Obama was inspired by the work of Stanton and the positive outlook on life Lopez was instilling in the children. He invited Stanton, Lopez, and Chastanet to the Oval Office and offered some advice and words of encouragement: "Usually life is not a straight line. We don't do things alone. Nobody does things alone," Obama said. "Everybody always needs support. You'll have a lot of people supporting you out there. You just gotta make sure you seize those opportunities." Reif Tauati, a senior studying computer science from the Big Island said, “The internet was the most important invention in the last 200 years. Good people use this connectivity to bring like-minded people together in a way that was impossible in every other age since the beginning of time.”Pike added, “We saw with the A.L.S. challenge how powerful social media can be for good. It is when we hear empowering stories of social media being used as a tool for good around the world that we realize its true potential. It is important that media sources continue to share positive stories of social media successes.”Uploaded Feb.16, 2015

BYU-Hawaii students and faculty were unfazed when news came that RadioShack would be closing their doors. The nearly hundred-year-old retail chain is gearing up to shut down shops after a bankruptcy deal that would leave about half of its stores in the hands of Sprint Corporation, and close the rest, according to Bloomberg Business. Sprint would operate the locations under their own name, leaving RadioShack obsolete and nonexistent.“This is well overdue,” said Alex Milne, a sophomore from California studying business. “RadioShack hasn’t really kept up with the pace of technology and that’s probably one of the biggest reasons why they’re in this situation.”In a recent news release, Sprint stated the agreement would allow them to expand by approximately 1,750 stores. Sprint also stated the stores will exclusively sell mobile devices across Sprint’s brand as well as RadioShack products, services and accessories. “I’m hoping that this will create a better service for Sprint customers,” said Ivy Wade, a sophomore from Indiana studying graphic design.RadioShack has recently been trying to move away from their static image as a go-to electronic parts retailer. However, despite rebranding and various marketing strategies, CNET Magazine, a leader in tech product reviews and news, reported the corporation had to close up to 1,100 of their stores in 2014 because of underperformance.“I’m not surprised that they’re closing, I’m actually surprised that they’ve lasted this long,” said Professor Joshua Smith, a computer and information services professor at BYUH. “Why go to a store 30 minutes away when I can get the same things online and for cheaper.”The deal will mark the final action for a corporation that has been around since 1921 when it began as a mail-order retailer for amateur ham-radio operators and maritime officers, Bloomberg reported. RadioShack will begin their final round of sales at their various 1,700 locations this weekend, according to Wall Street Journal.Uploaded Feb. 16